Appletine

Dealing with Bandits

The sun’s warm rays seeped through the trees, allowing the entire forest to bask in the bright blow. Clementine and the Crusaders stretched their limbs, and looked down at the remains of their campfire. “Let’s start finding some supplies, can’t stay here for too long.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that. Time to search for some supplies!” The Crusaders said all together, walking through the forest.

Foliage crunched under their hooves and animals tried to scurry away from them. Clementine trotted ahead of the group, they saw the last row of trees ahead of them where a small house protected by a large fence could be seen past the forest. They slid down a steep hill into a long wheat field leading to the house.

“Only one way to get to that house, have to get there quietly,” Clementine pointed out to the two ponies guarding the outside of the house.

“I’d rather blow up the fucking house,” Scootaloo huffed, holding onto her shotgun.

“Think about it, Scoots. We can’t go barging in there like that, Rarity always told me to knock on the door and ask to be let in,” Sweetie gestured, pretending that there was a door in front of her.

“Fine, but I’ll keep this bomb just in case.” She took out a round bomb from her saddlebag.

“Okay then, lead the way, Clementine.” Apple Bloom stretched her forehoof out to the house as Clementine walked through the wheat field, with the three fillies in tow.

They walked to the fence towering over them; a voice command device strapped to the fence began to speak. “Voice confirmation required.”

“Stand back, Ah got this.” Apple Bloom spoke into the voice command.

“Access denied.” the voice command answered, emitting a small shock to Apple Bloom. The shocking volt of electricity passed through her small body, a puff of smoke making its way out of her mouth.

“That piece of scrap metal is going to have bullet holes through it,” Scootaloo aimed her shotgun at the device. She thought for one moment and spoke into the device as well, “Let us in, we’ll offer you sugar cookies and cake.”

The device repeated its former statement and said, “Access denied.”

Scootaloo gritted her teeth with the shotgun in her hoof, aiming the gun at the device. She pressed her hoof against the shotgun’s trigger and pulled.  As the nose of the bullet pierced the red button of the voice command, electricity came out with a loud pop, causing the device to shut down. “That takes care of that fucking nuisance.”

“Time to get in there,” Scootaloo kicked the retracting door of the fence down, running to the outside of the house. She leaned against the house’s wooden wall, and kneeled down on one knee, followed by signaling the others to come over.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Clementine trotted quickly to Scootaloo’s position after they kneeled down as well. “So what’s the plan, Scoot?”

“The plan is for us to take out those two guards. I’ll take out the first guard, and Sweetie will take out the other one while you two head into the house.”  Scootaloo pointed past the wall, and sure enough, there were two armed guards positioned outside of the house.

“Sounds like a plan, let’s do this!” Sweetie and Apple Bloom made a pile of their hooves, encouraging their friends to join in. “On the count of three.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Operation: Cutie Mark Guard Killing Crusaders is a go!” They removed their hooves from the celebratory pile for the chant, Scootaloo walked silently behind the guard and Sweetie did the same.

One of the guards walked with his rifle pointed upward and his forehooves clenched tightly around it. His earpiece picked up a sound from his boss speaking into the communication device, “Keep your eyes peeled for anything fishy, and kill anypony on sight.”

“Yes, sir.” He responded, walking back to his post.

“Better make this fast.” Scootaloo waited patiently for him to pass by, she whispered silently on the guard’s arrival to the post. She slid her shotgun to her back and walked behind the guard without him turning around, wrapping her forelegs around his neck. Clenching back on his head and neck, she jumped on his back to avoid him knocking her off. Scootaloo stretched her hind legs tightly around his waist, she felt his flailing forelegs drooping down to his side, and dropping to his knees. “Sweet dreams, bitch,” she released her grip around his head and waist,  she stood back up on her hooves. “I wonder how Sweetie Belle is doing.”

Sweetie Belle skipped around, chasing a butterfly that was perched on her muzzle. “Tee-hee, come back here you pesky butterfly!” The butterfly fluttered its wings to the fence, landing on the top of the fence.

“What a cute little butterfly-” A loud gunshot rang through the air as a bullet pierced the blue butterfly, blotches of crimson blood squirted out of its small body.

        Sweetie Belle yelled up to the sky in anger at the slain butterfly. The dark clouds covered the once blue sky as rain poured down from above, she growled and looked across at one of the guards pointing his gun at her. “Down on the ground now!”

        She complied and raised her hooves in the air, the guard trotted over to her still pointing his gun at her. “Down on your knees!”

        “Okay.” Sweetie slowly dropped to her knees and ripped his gun from his hooves, sending the gun into his face. She stretched her left foreleg out to the side, tripping him down to the rain-soaked ground. “Give up?”

        She reloaded the clip in the rifle, pressing her hoof against the trigger and watched as his face imploded from the impact of the bullet. “That’s what you get for killing a butterfly.”

She stepped away from the brutalized corpse, pieces of flesh peeled back from where the bullet struck, almost like a banana peel. The center of his face was completely destroyed, leaving a bloody corpse behind. Sweetie noticed the earpiece on the right side of his ear, she picked the earpiece up and attached it to her right ear. “Hello, anypony there?”

“This is your worst nightmare, you’re trespassing on private property. Leave now or you and your friends will never get out.” the mysterious voice uttered from the earpiece.

“Who are you?” Sweetie shouted into the earpiece, but the connection cut off before he could answer.

I’ve got to find the others, Sweetie thought to herself silently, running through the wet dirt covering her hooves.

Scootaloo returned to the front door of the horse, where Clementine and Apple Bloom were bouncing a ball off the wall to kill time. “Have you guys seen Sweetie Belle come back yet?”

“Not yet, she’ll be back.” Apple Bloom held onto her bat tightly, the ball bounced off the wall and smacked against the bat.

“I hope so, we can’t proceed without her.” Clementine replied as she watched Scootaloo strap the bomb on the door, “What are you doing?”

“Blowing the bomb up for shit to hit the fan,” Scootaloo strapped the bomb to the front door, setting the timer and stepping away from the door.

“We have ten seconds to hide behind something, go!”

Scootaloo jumped behind a bale of hay, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom hid along the side of the bale. Clementine dropped to the wall and kneeled down against it, keeping her distance away from the bomb. As the timer ticked down to the final ten seconds of its detonation and the detonation finalized, an explosion blew the door down onto the mud-covered floor of the house. “Give up and nopony gets hurt!”

Apple Bloom flicked on the lights, illuminating the room and their eyes expanded at the multiple guns pointed at their faces. “Oh, buck me.”

A tall, gray stallion with a slicked back black mane sat behind his desk, his forehooves propped up on his scattered papers. His right eye was covered by a black eyepatch and a scar running down the length of his face, over his left eyelid. Shark tattoos covered his long forelegs and ran down to his forehooves, each tattoo decorated in different colored ink. “What gives you the right to trespass on my property?”

“To be fair, your voice recognition device was a piece of shit. Whoever sold you that robbed you of your bits, you must feel pretty stupid.” Scootaloo grinned smugly, the gray stallion smacked her across the face.

“You’re lucky that I won’t kill you right now,” He placed his red striped bandana on his desk; “But I’ll save you the trouble, and explain why you’re here.”

        Clementine was the first one to explain, clenching her fists together. “We’re in need of some food and water. We were hoping that you had some lying around.”

        “It’s always the same with you survivors, asking for supplies and stabbing each other in the back.” The tall stallion grabbed a pistol from behind his desk, and pointed it up to Clementine’s head. “Do you really think that I’ll just handle over my supplies, to you of all ponies?”

        “Take them outside. We’re going to let the dead tear them apart, beats killing them ourselves.” The Governor tapped his hoof against the mud-covered floor, his guards nod their heads as they carried their victims out to the wheat field.

        “Boss, we’re just going to leave them out here?” one of the guards asked, tying the rope around their waists.

        “Might as well, we’ll keep an eye on them closely from here. It’s not like they can escape,” He crossed his forelegs and scoffed, completely blowing off their attempts to escape.

        “You won’t get away with this!” Scootaloo snapped her teeth at the aggressor. The tight rope constricted around her, binding the filly to the exterior of the fence.

        “We shouldn’t have to deal with you guys at all-” Sweetie felt a blow to her head as the Governor bashed his gun against her temple repeatedly.

        “You should choose your words wisely, what do your two friends have to say?”

        “Bite my flank.” Apple Bloom snarled at him, the venomous eyes looking at him.

        One guard pulled the trigger on his pistol, a bullet penetrated through Apple Bloom’s knee leaving a small pool of bound in the wound. “Ah!” Her wail echoed in the air, holding her knee in pain.

        “That was just a warning. My guards and I can shoot you if you provoke one of us, with your actions or words so keep those in check.” The Governor threw his hoof down, telling the guard to stop shooting.

        “This will eventually bite you in the flank,” Sweetie Belle’s eyes looked up at the Governor, then peering over at Clementine hanging her head down.

        “These guys are bluffing. They should realize that they’ll probably get eaten to bits.” Clementine said, the Governor’s guards looking down at her.

        “Take Clementine, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle out to the forest. I’ll deal with the loudmouth,” the guards nodded at the Governor, taking the three ponies into the forest.

        “Here’s how this is going to go, I’m just going to tell you the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Enough about that, I’m just going to end you right here.” He pointed his pistol out at Scootaloo, pressing his hoof slowly against the trigger.

        Unbeknownst to the Governor, Scootaloo had a knife she took from the shooting range. Cutting the rope wrapped around her back, she moved the knife along and cut the remaining ropes precisely to avoid cutting her back. “Looks like I’m prepared to be put out of my misery, fire when ready,” she waved her hoof above her forehead dramatically, pretending to be in danger.

        Scootaloo cut the last rope constricting her and got up quickly on her hooves. She pressed her hooves against the fence, walking up the side of the fence as he kept his pistol aimed at her. He pulled the trigger as the bullet came shooting out of the pistol as the brash, young filly leaped off of the fence and landed behind the Governor. She grabbed his foreleg and twirled him around to her, keeping her grip firmly on the leg. She brought the foreleg down on her shoulder and jumped down on the grass, sending the cracking jolt of pain into his leg.

        He held onto his leg, rolling around the grass to ease the pain. Dragging his body over to the pistol, he felt Scootaloo’s hoof stop him directly in front of the pistol. “Not so fast. Had you not been so selfish, I would let you go freely.”

        “But now that you’ve really pissed me off, I’m going to finish you. Nice and slow.” She reached down on the grass and grabbed the pistol, also aimed the gun down at his head. Scootaloo pressed the trigger tightly with her hoof, the bullet entered through his skull, into his brain, and made its exit out through the back of his head.

        “That’s for smacking me, you worthless piece of trash.” Scootaloo dropped the knife and pistol into her saddlebag, she followed the guards’ tracks into the forest.